ARTICLE X1V.. Sec. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Sec. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the chcice of electors for president and vice-president of the United States, representatives in congress, the executive and judical officers of a state, or the members of the legistature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall he reduced in the pro portion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
Sec. 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in congress, or elector of president and vice-president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of con gress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the constitution of the United states, shall have engaged in. insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But congress may, by a vote of two thirds of each house, remove such disability.
Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppress ing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay rny debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellit,u against the United Sates, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Sec. 5. The congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
AItTICLE XV., Sec. 1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Sec. 2. The congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legis lation.
The state constitutions are very much alike in their general provisions. Of late years, and especially since the rebellion, many of the states have amended and modern ized their constitutions; but in all cases the state constitution must agree with the federal constitution; any provision with that is void. There is at this time an interesting question pending in regard to California. In 1879. that state adopted amendments to her constitution, which prohibits the introduction of Chinese into the state as citizens. It is alleged that this provision conflicts with the treaty between the United States and China, and is therefore void, inasmuch as (see UNITED STATES CON STITUTION) "all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land."